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Microsoft has quietly killed off Windows 7 support for older Intel PCs.
If your PC doesn't run Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2, you apparently won't be getting any more Win7 patches. At least, that's what I infer from some clandestine Knowledge Base documentation changes made in the past few days.
Even though Microsoft says it's supporting Win7 until January 14, 2020, if you have an older machine — including any Pentium III — you've been blocked, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Here's how it happened. Back in March, the Win7 Monthly Rollup, KB 4088875, included a warning about SSE2 problems:
A Stop error occurs on computers that don't support Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2 (SSE2).
I talked about the bugs in KB 4088875 — one of the buggiest Win7 patches in recent memory — shortly after it was released. At the time, the KB article said:
Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
[...] To recap: Up until June 15, Microsoft was promising that it would fix the bug that prevented Win7 Monthly Rollups and Security-only updates from installing on older pre-SSE2 machines. After June 15, Microsoft wrote off the pre-SSE2 population, without notice or fanfare, and retroactively changed the documentation to cover its tracks.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:05PM (3 children)
So what is the benefit of not supporting pre-SSE2? Does it make our newer systems faster? Give us a better connection to the internet? Has more molecules? Does it make the software less expensive? Does it even make Statya richer? Does it actually do anything?
Right, it means people have to throw out perfectly good machines and buy new latest and greatest with blue LEDs and shit. Of course these days the consumertards are all used to throwing out mobile electronics every year or two.
I have a system with an Athlon XP Mobile 3000 here, and there is nothing wrong with it. It is a decent machine. So I have to chunk it in to the river to appease our Microsoft overlords. Fuck them.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:32PM
Install the OS it came with. If you don't like it, install Linux or *BSD. Your PC did not come with futureproof warranty for 15 years. It's amazing that you still have use for it.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by epitaxial on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:00PM
The added cost of supporting two decade old CPU registers is not worth it. No your Athlon XP Mobile 3000 is not a decent machine. A $150 Chromebook will blow it out of the water performance wise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @10:07AM
I doubt it. If it did he'd be able to afford a nice suit like a proper CEO, instead of having to walk around in a grubby t-sirt and jeans looking like a sad hipster.